Review Blog

Nov 22 2016

Rain stones by Jackie French

Angus & Robertson, 2016. ISBN 9781460753170
(Age: 10+) Highly recommended. Rural Australia. Drought. This newly
presented edition celebrates twenty five years since this book was
first published. With a new cover and an edition in ebook format,
times have changed, but not the charming set of stories reflecting
life for young people in rural Australia.
The opening tale, Rain stones is a story which tells of life
in rural Australia during a drought where mum must work in the town,
Helen must get tea ready while dad works on the old pump getting
what little water there is into the dam for the few sheep left on
the property. French breathes life into this scenario as Helen
strives to follow up the story about Aboriginal people bringing rain
through special stones. She asks the local historian and finds that
one of the boys in her class has Aboriginal heritage. She talks to
his father but seemingly to no avail, until both groups meet to
encourage rain. It remains a wining tale of coming together in
drought ridden Australia, and reflects values now part of that time.
In 'Afternoon with Grandma', a visit by a family to their
Grandma with Alzheimer Disease sees the two children told to go into
the garden, where they meet a girl they think is their cousin and
play with her learning all about her life and dreams. It is only
talking with their mother that they learn that their Gran's dreams
were the same.
In the third story, Ben meets Jacob at the swimming pool for lessons
and realises that he is blind, while another story concerns the
dinosaurs living in the hills around Canberra. All stories are quite
delightful, revealing the early writing of Jackie French for a new
generation of her avid readers.
Fran Knight